Gwent Exports Graphene-Enabled Inks

Whilst others are still striving to get reliable and repeatable product. The Gwent Group. Gwent Electronic Materials based in South Wales UK have broken through the graphene based materials commercialisation barrier and are already exporting graphene-enabled inks to the Far East and the USA.

In conjunction with their joint venture partner Perpetuus Carbon Technologies, Gwent are pleased to announce they have developed graphene-enabled inks that are now immediately available to industry. The joint venture, known as Perpetuus Electronic Materials has developed fully formulated graphene containing coatings and inks, which are suitable for, flexographic and other continuous printing techniques, tailored for a variety of substrates and optimised for different curing and processing methods. Inks and coatings in pre-production quantities have already been shipped to company’s involved in battery electrodes and thermal management.

Les Embery CEO of Gwent said, “By bringing together Gwent’s 24 years of experience in the electronic ink field and supported by the availability of tonnes of the low cost Perpetuus high quality surface engineered graphene stacks, we believe we are the first UK company to offer graphene enabled inks by the tonne. We are now receiving repeat orders for preproduction sample inks and coatings from companies who are racing to be the first to go into full scale production”.

Perpetuus CEO, John Buckland said, “With 14 BSc’s and PhD research Scientists in the field, Gwent are without doubt a hidden treasure in the world of advanced materials. Graphene enabled inks are notoriously difficult to develop, many companies who have had success in the laboratory have failed to develop their inks into a commercial product. Working closely with the Gwent team, Perpetuus have been able to utilise their DBD plasma system to surface engineer graphene stacks enabling Gwent to elevate the performance of their carbon based low conductivity ink formulations.

Graphene oxide membranes have been receiving attention for their extremely powerful separation abilities and the ease at which it can be modified, allowing for membrane permittivity to be fine-tuned. These membranes show the potential to be used for water purification, ‘green’ gas purification and greenhouse gas capture.